Army of One
by The Chthonic Professor
Summary: By fluke, Naruto reads the secret behind Shadow Clones as he first learns the technique. So, when he finally has the B-class technique down-pat and with some daylight to spare, he does what any sensible ninja would do; and decides to turn his worst technique into his best. A Naruto learns every type of Clone story.


**_Army of One_**

 ** _The Chthonic Professor_**

 ** _Summary:_** _By fluke, Naruto reads the secret behind Shadow Clones as he first learns the technique. So, when he finally has the B-class technique down-pat and with some daylight to spare, he does what any sensible ninja would do; and decides to turn his worst technique into his best. A Naruto learns every type of Clone story._

-.-

 ** _Chapter One - Explosive Results_**

-.-

Naruto's day hadn't started out very well. Iruka-sensei had failed him because he'd been unable to produce a simple Bunshin, a regular illusionary Clone technique. He'd been really down, having been subject to the harsh whispers of the many parents gathered before the academy, until Mizuki had shown up and given him a second chance at becoming a ninja.

So, with all the stealth of Konoha's Number One Knuckle-Headed Prankster King from Hell, Naruto had followed Mizuki's orders and snuck into the Hokage Tower to steal the Forbidden Scroll. Though there'd been a slight hiccup where the old man had almost caught him, a quick application of his Oiroke no Jutsu and the Sandaime had been down for the count.

Once more following Mizuki's orders, Naruto had gone out and found Mizuki's clearing where proceeded to sit down and open the Forbidden Scroll in order to learn a technique. Of course, the first technique on the scroll had to be a Clone Technique, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, to be specific.

Naruto, being Naruto, had decided that if he couldn't do the Bunshin, then he _had_ to do the Kage Bunshin.

Then he actually _read_ the technique. Solid Clones that could fight and then send their memories back to him? Clones which could be used as a learning tool? There was no _way_ Naruto could pass this technique up. He might have been stupid, but he wasn't an idiot. Even Naruto knew just how beneficial the Kage Bunshin could be as far as learning went.

So, with nothing but pure guts and determination, Naruto powered his way through the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and, hours later, he'd succeeded. It had been gruelling, to the point that Naruto had taken off his jumpsuit (leaving him only in his black t-shirt) and had his vibrant blond hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, but he'd done it. He'd completed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Looking up through the foliage above, Naruto noticed that the sky was only just beginning to turn the slightest shade of pink. He grinned. Mizuki had said Naruto only needed one technique to pass, but Naruto would _really_ impress the white-haired teacher's assistant by learning _two_ techniques from the Forbidden Scroll. Then _nobody_ would ever be able to call him the dead-last again!

With a massive, face-splitting grin, Naruto unrolled the huge scroll just a little bit further.

"… _Bunshin Daibakuha no Jutsu…?_ " Naruto muttered to himself as he stared at the second technique in the Forbidden Scroll. Naruto paused. He thought about his newly-acquired Kage Bunshin technique. He thought about its learning capabilities. Then he reread the new technique sitting in front of his face.

In three separate parts of the village, Iruka, Mizuki, and Sarutobi Hiruzen all felt horrible shivers go up and down their spines. Something… terrible was happening.

-.-

Naruto was in shock.

Iruka had, surprisingly, found Naruto first. There'd been a moment of confusion, and then everything had gone downhill when Mizuki showed up. Iruka had been injured, Mizuki had been ousted as a traitor…

… and Naruto had learned the reason, the real reason, why everyone in the village hated him. He'd gone through a brief period of self-wallowing - he'd killed Iruka's parents, he really was a monster! - and then he'd ran. Mizuki chased after him and Iruka chased after Mizuki and their fight continued.

Then, in one swift moment, all of Naruto's fears were assuaged and Iruka had taken a sacred place in Naruto's heart.

That, however, didn't mean Iruka wasn't out of the woods yet. No pun intended. Mizuki was about to charge at Iruka and finish the job, which Naruto simply could not allow. So, he did the only sensible thing he could: face Mizuki head-on. Naruto took a grim sense of satisfaction at the surprise on Mizuki's face as he appeared in front of Iruka, the Forbidden Scroll planted firmly into the ground beside him.

"If you touch Iruka-sensei… I'l kill you!" He growled darkly at the white-haired traitor. Mizuki had the gall to laugh, throwing his head back, his chest shaking as he took amusement in the current situation. Naruto didn't see what was so funny.

"Yeah, what're you gonna do about it, brat?" Mizuki mocked, staring down the blond-haired demon host with far too much confidence in his gaze. Naruto's expression only seemed to become even more grimly satisfied. With a truly wicked grin, one that can only come from someone with the utterly devious mind of a prankster, Naruto crossed his fingers before him in what would become his most familiar hand seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He shouted, and the clearing filled with white smoke.

Mizuki suddenly found himself surrounded by a veritable army of Naruto clones, but he kept a (shaky) confident smirk on his face.

"You think your stupid little clone army could scare the likes of me, a Chunin!?" He shouted, though the kunai in his hand was visibly shaking. As one, the Naruto army charged the man. With a hesitant swipe, Mizuki's kunai tore through the first two clones to approach him from the front.

His shaky grin grew more confident as he watched the two blondes poof out of existence. However, like the true prankster that he was, Naruto's move had lured Mizuki into a false sense of security.

He never noticed the clone sneaking up behind him. With a cry of triumph, a copy of Naruto latched onto Mizuki's back. It was instantly dispelled, but in the time it took for Mizuki to reach around and stab it, another two clones had latched onto his legs. Mizuki's attention turned to the two clones wrapped around his feet, only for a clone to latch onto his arm, and then another to hop on his back.

Through the sea of black and blond, Mizuki spotted the grinning form of the original Naruto standing next to the crumpled, yet slack-jawed, form of Iruka. The blonde's hands were held together in what was clearly a Tiger hand seal.

" _Bunshin Daibakuha no Jutsu._ " Naruto spoke darkly. Though his words were muttered, Mizuki heard them clearly even though he was standing on the other side of the clearing. It would be the last thing he ever heard.

The explosion was visible even on the other side of the village, where Hiruzen was sitting in his office staring through his impressive floor-to-ceiling windows. He couldn't help but wonder, _'What has Naruto gotten himself into this time?'_

-.-

Barely an hour later, Naruto found himself giving an impromptu mission debriefing to the Hokage, sitting comfortably in his office. Iruka would have been there as well, except he had injuries that needed tending to, so he'd been rushed to the hospital.

Despite the oddity of the entire situation, the fact that Iruka's scratched-up and worn forehead protector was nestled comfortably upon Naruto's brow - Naruto's goggles were hanging around his neck - made the old Hokage smile.

"You've had quite the night, haven't you, Naruto-kun?" The Sandaime leaned his elbows upon his desk, intwining his fingers in front of his mouth (more to hide his growing smile than anything else). Naruto just chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you mind telling me how all of this came about, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen prodded gently, assuring Naruto that despite the severity of the situation, the Hokage, his Jiji, wasn't mad.

So, Naruto began his tale. He told the Hokage about how Mizuki had tricked him into stealing the scroll with promises of graduating. How he'd followed Mizuki's orders and found the designated clearing, which had been outside the village.

Then he told the Hokage about how he'd opened the scroll, because Mizuki had said that to pass, he needed to learn one of the techniques in the scroll. The Hokage's brow had furrowed, but Naruto pushed on.

"… and then, when I opened the scroll, there was a Bunshin technique, the Kage Bunshin, right at the front! At first I didn't wanna learn that technique, 'cuz the Bunshin is my worst technique, y'know." He looked up at the Sandaime as if to receive confirmation that yes, in fact, Hiruzen _had_ known that the Bunshin was his worst technique, before he continued. "But then I read the technique, like _really_ read the technique, and I was like, 'I totally have to learn this!' y'know. So then I learned the technique!"

Hiruzen blinked at the excitable blond boy sitting in front of him. The little, blond, dead-last of the academy who had learned the B-rank kinjutsu, the Kage Bunshin, in the span of a couple of hours.

 _'_ _Well, Naruto,'_ Hiruzen thought to himself, unable to hold back a small smile, _'You truly are the most unpredictable person I've ever met.'_

It was at that very moment that the mind Konoha's vaunted Professor connected the dots. Naruto had learned the Kage Bunshin, and presumably been attacked by Mizuki, who'd been ousted as a traitor. Then there'd been a massive explosion. An explosion large enough to kill the traitorous Chunin.

Hiruzen felt his jaw drop a little.

"Naruto… you didn't learn the _Bunshin Daibakuha no Jutsu_ from the scroll as well, did you?" Hiruzen asked, trepidation in his voice. Naruto just blinked up at his Hokage, surprise on his face.

"Eh? Yeah, I did. How'd you know?"

Hiruzen resisted the urge to sigh. "Naruto, there was an explosion so big I could see it from here." Naruto's eyes went wide.

"Whoa, really?" Then he grinned, swiped his thumb across his nose, and sat up straighter. "Heh, I knew I was awesome!" Then he stopped and composed himself for a moment as Hiruzen ushered the boy to continue his story.

"Right, right," Naruto chuckled, "So then, after I learned the Bunshin Daibakuha, Iruka-sensei shows up, and he's all like, 'Naruto, do you have any idea what you've done?', so I explained that it was a test and Mizuki told me to learn a technique from the scroll. Then right after that Mizuki showed up and attacked Iruka-sensei!" His voice rose slightly in anger.

"Then… then," Naruto's voice suddenly grew quiet and somber. "Then Mizuki told me the reason that everyone in the village hates me." Naruto looked down at his lap, his bangs shadowing his cerulean eyes. "Jiji… am I really… am I really a monster?" Naruto looked up at Hiruzen through his bangs and the old man felt his heart breaking at the fear and loneliness in the child's eyes.

"No, Naruto." Hiruzen shook his head and reached over his desk to place a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "The Kyuubi, the Nine-tailed fox is sealed inside of you, yes. That is true. But, you are Uzumaki Naruto, Genin shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village, and Konoha's Number-One Knuckle-Headed Prankster King from Hell. You're a determined, caring young man who carries the Will of Fire in his heart. The Kyuubi is sealed inside of you… but you are not a monster, Naruto. Never forget that."

Huge, crocodile-sized tears gathered in the corners of Naruto's eyes as he gave his Jiji a massive watery smile.

"Thanks, old man," Naruto managed to choke out. His throat felt thick and constricted, and his chest hurt, but Naruto had never been so happy in his life.

However, in typical Naruto fashion, his train of thought had already diverged and headed elsewhere by the time he'd gathered himself well enough to speak again.

"So anyway, Jiji, I've made a decision!" Naruto exclaimed as he wiped the tears from his eyes with the sleeves of his orange jacket, which he was wearing once more.

"Oh, and what decision might this be, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked, intrigued by his honorary grandson's sudden declaration.

"I'm gonna master all of the Bunshin techniques!" Naruto pumped a fist in the air, a determined gleam in his eyes.

Hiruzen's own eyes had widened in surprise.

"Every Bunshin technique?" He parroted, wondering just how much Naruto had learned from the Forbidden Scroll. There was no way… was there?

"Yeah! I'm gonna master the Kage Bunshin _and_ the Bunshin technique, so that in a fight people won't know if they're attacking a Shadow Clone or a regular one!"

Had Hiruzen's hairline not already been receding, his eyebrows would have vanished from sight. "Well now, I'm very impressed Naruto. Not very many people could have come up with such a devious idea."

While Naruto was once more chuckling happily and rubbing the back of his neck, a devious smirk was slowly emerging on the Sandaime Hokage's face. So, Naruto wanted to learn every clone-related technique, did he? Well, Hiruzen could help out with that, no problems _what-so-ever_.

"Naruto-kun, if you truly want to master every Bunshin technique, it's going to take a lot more effort than just learning the Kage Bunshin and regular Bunshin techniques!" The Sandaime exclaimed, adding a slightly surprised, almost incredulous lilt to his voice to gain Naruto's full attention.

"Really? Why, Jiji?" Naruto asked, eyes scrunched and brows furrowed in confusion.

"Why? Because there are more clone techniques than just the regular and Shadow clone techniques! Why, there's clones for all five elements, and even clone techniques that multiply the number of Shuriken or Kunai that you throw!" He was being slightly over dramatic, but he'd seen the gleam in Naruto's eyes. If Hiruzen could get Naruto to learn every type of clone technique, the boy would become more than merely formidable in a short period of time.

"Naruto," His voice suddenly became far more serious, tone darkening, "It is going to take a _lot_ of work. Most people only learn how to use up to two elements, and those people tend to be Jounin level shinobi. If you want to learn every clone technique, you're going to have to know how to manipulate all five elements." Hiruzen stared the small boy down, and the gleam returned to Naruto's blue eyes.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Jiji! I'll be able to use all five elemental clones in no-time, y'know!" The two stared at each other, one determined and the other satisfied. Then the silence started to become awkward.

"Ah… Jiji?" Naruto asked, a pensive look on his face.

"Yes, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen replied, the perfect picture of innocence.

"How do I learn how to use elemental clones?" He asked, suddenly realizing that he had no idea how to use elemental ninjutsu. Hiruzen just chuckled.

"Why, you begin with chakra control exercises!"

Hiruzen only needed a moment to see the look on Naruto's face before he burst out laughing.

That night, Naruto would head home with his arms laden down with a number of scrolls, each one of them filled with regular chakra control exercises or the first stages of learning how to manipulate one of the five elements.

Though the world didn't know it at the time, this would be the beginning of the Legend of Uzumaki Naruto, the _Konoha no Ichi no Guntai_ , Konoha's Army of One.

-.-

 ** _AN:_** _And yet another story comes out of the woodworks! I think I've even got another one that I haven't posted yet, I'll have to check. I just keep coming up with these story ideas! Anyway, I've seen other stories that start of kinda like this one, where Naruto learns more than just Shadow Clones, but I don't know if there's actually been a story quite like the one I'm planning. This thing is gonna be epic._

 _Don't forget to leave a review, you know, if you have time. They are always appreciated._

 _Peace!_

 _The Chthonic Professor_


End file.
